


General Pain

by BluePlanetTrash



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt, Galra Children, Gen, Stranded Lance, Zethrid has kids, lance - Freeform, lotor angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-08 18:51:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13464396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BluePlanetTrash/pseuds/BluePlanetTrash
Summary: When Lance was shot down from the sky during a mission; he thought that he would only have to wait a day or two, then he would be back on the Castle. He didn't account for finding three small Galra children. Or finding out that their mother was General Zethrid, and their aunts were Axca and Ezor. Good thing Lotor was on their side already, right?





	General Pain

“Lance, can you hear me?” Lotor’s voice sounded through the coms. Lance blinked his eyes opened and looked around in confusion. He remembered that he was on a mission with Lotor before he and Red were shot down by retreating Galra soldiers. At least it seemed like they wouldn’t have to go right into battle. He groaned and straightened up, he could tell that Red was sprawled on the ground.

“Lotor?” he groaned.

“Oh, thank the stars,” he sighed in relief. Lance looked out of Red’s eyes but he couldn’t see Lotor’s ship anywhere.

“Are your coms to the Castle working?” Lotor asked. Lance startled and first tried Red’s controls but it was clear that he wasn’t going to be moving for a while. He pressed his finger to his helmet, immediately he ripped away when loud static vibrated through the radio.

“It’s no use,”

“As I thought, I will travel back to the Castle for help, the hyperdrive should get me there in plenty of time,” he said.

“Sounds good, I’ll scout around for a possible landing spot for the Castle,” he said as he slid from Red’s mouth.

“Understood, and Lance?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t do anything stupid,”

“Aw come on Lotor, I thought we were buddies now,” he playfully whined brushing vines out of the way.

“We may be but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to tease you at any moment,” he laughed. “But seriously, don’t endanger yourself unnecessarily,”

“I won’t Lotor, I promise,” he said fondly.

“Alright, I’ll be back with help soon,” he said before entering hyperdrive. Lance huffed and turned off the out of range com and glanced around.

Time to find some landing ground.

* * *

He circled around as best as he could, but he wasn’t able to find anything remotely stable enough to hold something as heavy as the Castle, and decided to head back for the day. As he walked through the murky woods on the way back to Red, he held his gun up prepared to fire. He didn’t know anything about this planet, and he didn’t know whether or not Galra forces were still on the surface. He spun around when he heard a snap and a small thump. He grimly took aim and looked down the sight but quickly took it off when he caught what was in the crosshairs.

A little kid was sprawled across the ground, the dust settling from where they fell. He blinked and suddenly there were two more, tugging them up from the dirt and looking warily up at Lance. He could tell that they were Galra, with big ears and big yellow eyes. He slowly crouched down and deactivated his bayard before hooking it to his belt.

“Are you okay?” He asked gently. The kids looked at him in surprise before the one that fell hesitantly nodded his head.

“What are you doing out here?” He looked at them with concern. Even if they had just met them, they were just kids.

“Looking for our mom and aunts,” the tallest one said stepping forward to block his view of the other two. He smiled at the bravery that the kid was trying to show even though he could see their little hands shaking by their sides.

“Well, maybe I can help, my name is Lance,” he introduced putting his hand on his chest.

“I’m Alu,” the tallest one declared, pointing a thumb at their chest.

“I’m Piciar!” the second on said excitedly peeking out from behind Alu’s back.

“I’m Icha,” the one that fell on the ground said quietly. He could see a faint blush appearing on their cheeks. He let out a quiet laugh at them and gave them a comforting smile. They looked at him with wonder on their faces and crept forward.

“Can you really help us find our mom?” Piciar asked hopefully.

“I can certainly try,” Lance grinned standing up. They let out loud cheers and grouped around him. As they walked down the path, they chattered questions up at him, which he tried to answer as well as he could. He slowed his tracks when he started to see a clearing ahead of them. He glanced around, trying to see if there was a possibility of the Castle being able to land there but saw that the dark green grass was actually the murky top layer of a swamp. He cautiously stepped forward on the soft ground, pushing down hard in front of him to see if it would support his weight. It was slow going as they crossed the swamp, it would be much better than sprinting through with reckless abandon though. He looked back to make sure the kids were following and saw that they were carefully stepping on his exact footprints.

“Do you have any idea where your mom or aunts may be?” He asked as he stood on the other side patiently waiting for them to step onto safe ground. His arm shot out, almost instinctively when Icha’s foot slipped over the edge of the grass and hauled him to his side by the back of his shirt.

“Thank you,” he said shakily, clutching around Lance’s leg like a lifeline. Lance ruffled the hair on top of his head.

“So, any idea?” He tried again, resting his hands on his waist. Their eyebrows crinkled in thought.

“Um, they went to go fight the soldiers that were here, they landed near our house and destroyed it, so she told us to run,” Alu provided pointing up at the sky as if the ships were still flying around. Lance’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Wait, did your mom set off the distress beacon?” He asked. They eagerly nodded their heads with smiles on their faces, but they melted back into frowns after a second.

“But then those soldiers came, we thought that we were going to be going home,” Piciar pouted crossing their arms.

“Don’t worry! My team is responding to the call, the Galra downed my ship but my friend went to get help, we can get you off of the planet and my friends can help us find your family too,” Lance said glancing at each of their faces. Their ears perked up slightly in excitement and they looked at each other with wide eyes and smiles.

“She didn’t give a specific place to hide did she?” He asked as they finally turned and started heading through the trees again. They shook their heads silently and gave them a shallow nod of understanding in return.

“For now, we’ll go back to my ship then, hopefully, they’ll be able to find us, if not we’ll be able to search for them when help arrives,” Lance decided. It would be the safest option for them at the moment. He didn’t know what was lurking around right now, let alone when the sun would set. Red was powered down for now but he’d be able to at least close his mouth so they would be protected. Besides they would have to stumble on Red at some point, he was a giant colourful lion after all.

He watched the kids’ eyes light up in amazement as they finally got into view of Red.

“Whoa! Your ship is so cool!” Icha said in amazement, running over to brush their hands along the metal of Red’s nose.

“Thanks! His name is Red!” He said proudly, catching up with the excited kid. He laughed as the three of them started climbing on Red’s muzzle and over his paws. As much as Red liked to pretend that he was a hardass, he was actually a big ball of fluff. Maybe not as much as Blue or Yellow, but still.

He looked up at the sky and saw it started to change colour and quickly ushered the three of them into Red’s mouth and up to the cockpit. They were smart enough not to try and play with any of the controls and he handed them blankets that were kept in Red’s emergency kit. After he tucked them in on the cot, he returned to the pilot’s chair and started fiddling with Red’s controls and the com on his helmet again.

Nothing had changed.

* * *

The next morning, he blinked open his eyes. Except he wasn’t in the pilot’s chair anymore.

He was outside.

With a very large alien staring down at him.

He let out a loud screech and tried to roll over and get up, but her boot stopped him and he looked up at her fearfully. She was bearing her teeth at him and a continuous growl was coming from her throat.

“What do you want?” He snarled. He looked around and saw Red just a short distance away from him. His mind lapsed into panic and his eyes darted around the opening of Red’s mouth. He looked up at her with wide-eyed fury.

“You better not have hurt them,” he stated coldly. At that, she blinked and her growling stopped. She stared down at him in confusion. Her ear twitched and her attention was brought away from Lance.

“Mom!” A trio of voices rang out and the sound of footsteps pattered against the ground. He saw Alu, Piciar, and Icha collided into Zethrid’s leg. Her face went soft and her hands went protectively around them. He could tell that the three of them just woke up, their eyes were bleary, and their hair was in disarray. Icha’s head tilted slightly and he caught sight of Lance on the ground, Zethrid’s boot still pressing down on his leg. They let out a squeak and detached from Zethrid’s leg to pat down on Lance’s chest.

“Are you okay?” They asked him worriedly. Lance kept looking between them and Zethrid’s shocked face.

“Mom, what are you doing to Lance?” Alu asked, shaking her leg slightly, although it didn’t move too far.

“Didn’t he kidnap you?” She asked gruffly. Piciar frantically shook his head.

“He said he was going to help us, that his team was coming to take us home,” Piciar defended stepping back and spreading his arms out as if to protect Lance.

“Voltron is coming here?” Ezor asked appearing from behind Zethrid. Lance looked at her in shock. He faintly nodded his head and flinched when they both groaned.

“Great, now we’re going to be prisoners,” Ezor said raking her hands down the side of her face.

“Well, maybe we could form an alliance or something, I’m sure we could figure something out,” Lance suggested hopefully. He knew how strong these women were. They would be a great addition to the team. Speaking of the women, where was the third one.

“Do you really think we could?” Axca asked. Lance yelped and looked at his other side to see the general standing beside him. Still, slightly in shock, he nodded.

“We’re always looking for new allies, besides we have lots of Galra on our side,” he said. “Plus, we can’t exactly turn you away when you have kids, it wouldn’t be fair,” They looked at him with wide eyes of disbelief.

They let out sounds of surprise when Red suddenly twitched and began rising to his feet. He let out a loud roar as he stood proudly.

“Good timing Red!” Lance praised jumping up. With Red up and running, he would be able to reach the Castle with no problem.

“C’mon lets go!” He said waving at them to follow him. They glanced at each other before following in behind him. Before he activated his monitor he glanced back.

“You might want to stand back a little bit, they might think you’re sneaking up behind me or something,” he advised them. They nodded and moved out of the camera’s range.

With a bit of static, an image of the bridge appeared, with only Allura and Coran visible at the moment.

“Lance!” Coran cheered in relief.

“Hey Coran, Allura, Red is up and running and I got passengers that were stranded,” he reported with a smile.

“Perfect, we’ll be able to send them as refugees to another planet,” Allura said. Lance nodded and looked back at the six of them with a smile.

“We’ll send you the coordinates of the Castle,” Coran said tapping away at his monitor.

“Alright, I’ll see you guys soon,” he said switching off the monitor.

“So what were you guys doing there anyway?” Lance asked as Red started lifting off of the ground.

“We were sent there as punishment,” Axca admitted quietly. “We’re seen as traitors to the Galra empire, we’re lucky that we’re even alive,”

He looked back at them sadly but they were just staring down at the ground. It must have been hard to be thrown away from everything you’ve ever known. Then again, he knew the feeling. Maybe they weren’t as different from them as he thought.

As they travelled through space, he tried to think about how he would explain them to the team. It always came back to one thing though.

The truth.

They needed help. The kids needed help. That should be enough for them.

He decided that he would just tell the team what was happening plain and simple, and if they wanted to fight him about it. Then he would fight tooth and nail for them to stay.

Luckily, the Castle was a lot closer to reaching the planet than he thought and saw the spires of the Castle glowing blue in the distance. Red let out a loud roar and raced even quicker to the hanger side, where the doors were already open. As he landed he saw the team waiting outside with smiles on their faces, ready to greet the refugees.

“You guys wait here for a second, I’m just going to talk to them first,” they nodded their heads as he descended from Red’s mouth.

“Hey, guys!” He said cheerfully as he landed on the ground in front of them.

“Where are the refugees?” Allura asked curiously, peeking around him.

“Um, where’s Lotor?” Lance asked, glancing around but the Galra prince was nowhere in sight.

“His ship sustained some damage coming back from the planet, he’s just doing some repairs,” Pidge told him.

“Lance, the refugees,” Allura reminded him. He rubbed the back of his neck anxiously.

“Right…about that, the refugees, they’re Lotor’s old generals,” he said. Their jaws dropped in shock.

“Wait, you mean like Chameleon girl, Beefcake, and Girl Keith?” Hunk asked in surprise. Lance blinked at the nicknames but nodded his head.

“They are refugees, are they not?” Allura asked seriously.

“Yeah, they were dumped on the planet because they’re traitors to the Galra Empire or something,” Lance told them, shaking his head. “Allura, Zethrid’s got three kids in there,”

“Okay,” she said after a few seconds of silence. He blinked at her.

“What?” he choked out.

“We got Lotor on our side without much of a problem, and if she has children, she wouldn’t risk going undercover in anyway, I don’t see any problem with helping relocate them,” she shrugged. Lance’s mouth formed an ‘O’ shape as he looked at her, before turned and ran back in Red.

He came back out with the three of them trailing after him, Alu, Piciar, and Icha curiously glancing around.

“Welcome to the Castle of Lions,” Allura greeted with a smile, the paladins giving them a friendly wave as well.

“Thank you for having us,” Zethrid said honestly.

“It is our pleasure, if you come with me, we can get all of you looked over in the med bay,” she said gesturing at the far end of the hangers. Lance looked playfully at the kids before bouncing forward slightly.

“Race ya!” He called bounding forward. With a squawk they started after him, Pidge and Hunk joining in behind them.

“No fair!” Hunk called out as he and Pidge sprinted behind them. Allura and Shiro laughed and gestured for the generals to follow them. As they got closer to the doors they gaped at the sight of Lotor’s ship.

“Lotor,” they gasped in shock as they walked past it. He was standing in front of the workbench placed beside his ship.

They could see his shoulders stiffen at the call and he turned, his eyes wide with shock. They quickly narrowed dangerously and he turned his head away dismissively.

“We’ll give the four of you some time,”  Allura said placing her hand on Zethrid’s arm before walking out the doors with Shiro.

“So you’re the ones that sent the distress call,” Lotor hissed quietly.

“Yes,” Axca confirmed stepping forward slightly. She wasn’t sure how Lotor got to be on a team with Voltron but she wasn’t about to ask him about it anyway.

“Fantastic, now can you leave?” He asked harshly, not turning to look at them again. His shouldered were trembling and his hands were clutching tightly to a tool from his workbench.

“We did what we had to do,” Axca tried to argue, carefully keeping her face blank.

“I TRUSTED YOU!” Lotor finally yelled, whipping around to face them. His eyes still glared at them furiously, but tears were welling up in his eyes and rolling down his cheeks. They crossed their arms disbelievingly.

“Narti trusted you,”  Ezor stated coldly, her hand on her hip.

“Didn’t you see? She was already dead! Her body was being controlled by Haggar and Kova,” he growled in frustration. He tried to take a deep breath in but choked on it and turned back to rest his hands on the workbench. He curled over it protectively and watched his tears drop onto the surface.

In the past, he would have been overjoyed to have been reunited with his generals. He had been with them for so much of his life that he thought of them as a family. Obviously, they didn’t see it the same way.

“I already knew that my father hated me, I didn’t think that you would as well,” he said quietly. He felt broken, the pain of betrayal was still so fresh in his mind. Especially Axca, his most loyal general and what he thought to be his oldest friend.

“Please leave,” he requested.

“Sir-,” Zethrid started quietly.

“LEAVE!” He cried brokenly, spinning to glare venomously at them. They looked at him with regret before nodding and trudging out of the hanger. Lance watched them, swiping at his eyes. His eyebrows wrinkled up and his chin trembled before a small sob left his mouth. He collapsed to the ground, leaning against the workbench and curled his legs up to his body.

He would get over it. He had to, they were probably there to stay until they found a safe planet for them to live on, which in this reality wasn’t likely at the moment. He stared over at the hanger doors with already swelling eyes.

Did the kits forget about him? Did they hate him like his mother did? Did they still see him as family? Did anybody?

“Maybe this is what I deserve,” he whispered to the silence of the hanger.

**Author's Note:**

> Come visit me at my Tumblr too!: https://blueplanettrash.tumblr.com/


End file.
